All My Possessions

Whenever we go camping it reminds me of when I spent six weeks back-packing through Europe with a great friend of mine back in '88, twenty years ago.  WOW.  The feeling is one if independence, of control, of responsibility, of living within your means.  Now, I know that today, camping, I have a credit card in my pocket, so the living within your means bit does have a security blanket that is a heck of a lot larger than when you don't.  Nevertheless.

Backpacking in Europe that orange backpack was all I had.  My clothes, my camera, my diary, my passport and tickets, my travellers cheques and money, my toiletries.  The bag had numerous pockets and each one had its designated function, like the rooms in a house.  It was organized, I knew where everything was and when I fell asleep I protected it.  I was carrying my house on my back so to speak.

These days when I camp some of those feelings come back.  Less of a reliance on our luxuries, more of a dependence on nature, on what we have with us....now.  You improvise, you create, you forgo certain desires, you live within your means.  Again, each spot (aka pocket/room) of the tent has a purpose.  The sleeping bags at the top, the bags at the door.  The diary in the tent wall's pocket, the eyeglasses nestled between the tent wall and the sleeping bag, the wallet their as well.  A few millimetres between us and the outside, between our secure home and the "unknown".

Nice sensations.

1) dependence..humbles us and makes us communicate more

2) improvisation....our imagination, our connection with our surroundings, our creativity, our pride.

I feel my senses, my emotions, a little more when I have less of my possessions around me.